By SDCN Staff
A Florida man, formerly employed as a ransomware negotiator, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit ransomware attacks against U.S. companies in 2023.
According to court documents, Angelo Martino, 41, of Land O’Lakes, Florida, collaborated with the operators of the Blackcat/ALPHV (“BlackCat”) ransomware variant used by cybercriminals to attack and extort institutions and companies. Beginning in April 2023, Martino abused his role at a U.S.-based cyber incident response company to assist BlackCat actors. Working as a negotiator on behalf of five different ransomware victims, Martino provided BlackCat attackers with confidential information about the negotiating position and strategy of his company’s clients without the clients’ or his employer’s knowledge or permission. This confidential information assisted the ransomware actors and maximized the ransoms that the victims were required to pay. The confidential information included the victims’ insurance policy limits and internal negotiation positions. The BlackCat actors paid Martino for this confidential information.
Additionally, Martino has admitted to conspiring with Ryan Goldberg of Georgia and Kevin Martin of Texas to successfully deploy BlackCat ransomware between April 2023 and November 2023 against multiple victims located throughout the United States. All three men worked in the cybersecurity industry and leveraged their knowledge and skills to commit these crimes. After successfully extorting one victim for approximately $1.2 million in Bitcoin, the men split their share of the ransom three ways and laundered the funds through various means.
To date, law enforcement has seized $10 million of assets from Martino, including digital currency, vehicles, a food truck, and a luxury fishing boat that Martino obtained using proceeds of the offense or acquired as a result of the offense.
“Angelo Martino’s clients trusted him to respond to ransomware threats and help thwart and remedy them on behalf of victims,” said Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Instead, he betrayed them and began launching ransomware attacks himself by assisting cyber criminals and harming victims, his own employer, and the cyber incident response industry itself.”
Martino pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct, delay or affect commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce by extortion. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Martin and Goldberg separately entered guilty pleas to the same charge in December 2025. Martin and Goldberg are scheduled to be sentenced on April 30 and each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
“The FBI works every day to dismantle the ransomware ecosystem,” said Assistant Director Brett Leatherman of the FBI’s Cyber Division. “That includes apprehending key facilitators like Angelo Martino, who abused the trust placed in him as a private sector negotiator by collaborating with ransomware criminals. Martino provided BlackCat ransomware actors with confidential information to maximize ransom payments. He also conspired with other U.S. residents to launch attacks on victims across the country.”
The announcement follows the Justice Department’s prior actions in December 2023 to disrupt BlackCat ransomware, during which the FBI developed a decryption tool that allowed FBI field offices across the country and law enforcement partners around the world to offer hundreds of victims the capability of restoring their systems, saving victims approximately $99 million in ransom payments. At that time, the FBI also seized several websites operated by the BlackCat ransomware actors.
